Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw’s partnership with Roger Staubach began on the football field. The two suited up together for the Dallas Cowboys in 1979 — Staubach’s final season and Shaw’s rookie year. Shaw was a first-round draft pick, but a knee injury ended his NFL career after just three seasons, forcing an early pivot.

That pivot reshaped Dallas real estate. Shaw returned to school to study architectural design and management, then emerged as a pioneer of mixed-use development in North Texas. He’s widely credited with helping introduce multifamily development to Uptown Dallas, then a low-rise neighborhood still known as Little Mexico, before it evolved into one of the city’s densest and most valuable submarkets.

Before founding Columbus Realty Partners, Shaw worked with Bob Breunig at SBC Development and later served as president of Memphis Real Estate. Staubach became a part owner of Columbus, and together they delivered early Uptown projects like The Meridian, a 130-unit apartment complex that opened in 1991 and is often cited as the area’s first modern multifamily development.

The duo later teamed up on Trinity Groves, a 15-acre mixed-use district at the base of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Columbus has also embraced opportunities afforded by North Texas sprawl, developing projects at Legacy Town Center, Legacy West, Trinity Groves and Twelve Cowboys Way in Plano and Frisco. 

— Jess Hardin